Inspector says abuses on board still common

Rose Kearney seems to know every inch of Dublin Port's maze of dark corners, cranes, containers and open quays as she manoeuvres the Stella Maris mini-bus, stopping to pick up seafarers waiting eagerly at the ships.

Rose has spent more than 40 years taking care of sailors at the Stella Maris charity in Dublin. The charity recently made an unusual Christmas appeal for foul weather clothing, because many mariners coming to Dublin Port from warmer climes are poorly equipped for cold northern waters.

Volunteers such as Rose collect the crew from cargo, passenger and research ships docked at Dublin Port 365 nights a year. A Georgian building near Busáras provides a welcome change from the ship for many of the sailors in their few hours off.

There the men (mainly) get to chat, play pool, watch television, and warm themselves by the fire, not to mention phone their wives, whom they may not have seen for nine months. Most of the men send 90 per cent of their wages home to support a large extended family of siblings, parents, cousins, nieces and nephews, according to Rose.

Sailors had not eaten properly for 21 days in one ship inspected last year by Ken Fleming of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). He said there were no showers or toilets on board, and the crew had been on board for a year with no safety drill in place.

It was a busy year for the ships inspector, with four ships arrested in total. Fleming inspects some of the thousands of vessels visiting the Irish ports every year and says conditions on many ships remain primitive, with widespread on-board bullying, sailors being worked almost to death and systematic breaking of wage and hour contracts.

Despite this, the competition for these jobs is tough, and if a Filipino agency has 10 jobs available it will get thousands of applicants.

Once seafarers have a job, getting payment can also be a problem. Last summer 11 Latvian crew of the Fortuna I were stranded on the vessel off the Co Louth coast for six weeks over pay and safety issues. The vessel was found to have structural defects, as well as two sets of books aboard. The crew were paid €40,000 in arrears in June.

Elsewhere the vessel the MV Lillian was detained in New Ross for two months last summer after it was found not to have paid crew for 10 weeks. The crew were recently refunded almost €70,000.

Fleming is hopeful conditions for sailors will improve in the year ahead. He says the authorities are becoming more co-operative with the ITF as they come to know about the human rights abuses on board many ships.

Although many of the seafarers do not get home for Christmas, Stella Maris opens throughout the festive season to give them somewhere they can call home, relax, and even receive one of the 300 Christmas boxes made by the charity's volunteers.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times